"Charisma" issue No. 1 and issue No. 500
Would you believe it if I told you Charisma published 500 issues? I was shocked when I realized that the March issue of Charisma was our 500th. To celebrate, our publisher and vice president of the Charisma Media Group, Dr. Steve Greene, interviewed me on my "Strang Report" podcast. We discussed Charisma's beginnings and how God grew it from a small publication to the leading charismatic magazine it is today. You can listen to our entire conversation by clicking here or clicking the podcast at the end of this article.
Some of you may have heard
Charisma's genesis story before
. I've shared many times how as a Pentecostal journalist, I had a desire to publish a magazine that reported on what the Holy Spirit was doing in our nation and around the world
. I had the chance to write a story on healing evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman for the
Orlando Sentinel, a newspaper in central Florida
.But I wanted to do more
.
So in 1975, I founded a small charismatic magazine at a Florida megachurch. This was at the height of the Jesus Movement, when revivals were sweeping the U.S. and even traditional denominations were experiencing the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Our first issue was 32 pages, and I wrote the cover story on Thurlow Spurr, a Spirit-filled musician whose songs touched many. Two months later, our second issue featured Kathryn Kuhlman and the incredible healing miracles that characterized her ministry. That issue came out shortly before she died.
For the first year, I kept working at the
Orlando Sentinel and published
Charisma on the side. During that time, we printed 10,000 copies for about 420 subscribers. But I knew I had to commit my full attention to
Charisma if I wanted to see it grow as I envisioned. So after that first year, I quit my job. The truth is that I didn't have a desire to succeed as much as I had a desire not to fail.
And yet sometimes you can succeed by just not giving up. Because
Charisma started in the midst of a charismatic revival, there were plenty of other Christian magazines around. I remember one gentleman who approached me to ask why I founded
Charisma when there were already several magazines like it. Though rude, his comment stuck in my mind because all three of the Christian publications he mentioned by name are no longer active.
Charismais the only magazine of its kind that has stood the test of time. In fact,
Charisma absorbed one of those Christian magazines,
Christian Life, in 1986. Robert Walker founded that magazine back in 1939, and I admired him greatly. In fact, I have an entire room in our headquarters dedicated to his honor.
When I founded
Charisma, my goal was merely to write articles about what the Lord was doing, and a church magazine seemed like a good way to do it. But now, our vision has grown in scope and specificity. As a multimedia company, we aim to inspire people to radically change their world through the Spirit's power. And as technology has advanced over the last 40-plus years, ...
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Celebrating 500 Issues of Charisma Magazine
37 Minutes - March 11th 2019
Charisma magazine releases its 500th issue. Listen as founder Stephen Strang tell stories of how the magazine started, memorable interviews, and the impact the magazine has had on the Kingdom for God.
